Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I agree with this, but many posters in this thread have vouched for LA being tops and even tops in the world...
What is wrong with that? It's all opinion, and LA is an incredible food city. It's not like people are saying Indianapolis (or whatever mid-tier city) is the top food city, I think an argument can be made for LA. I don't personally think it is the best food city, but it's definitely not an outrageous opinion.
Right, but the problem is to my understanding, LA previously had a Michelin guide until they pulled it. I'm not sure as to the reason why, but why didn't they pull SF's or Chicago's and then go ahead and add DC?
As I have stated before, on pure size alone LA basically crushes most US cities on food, but it's just interesting to see LA be claimed as the food capitol of the US or maybe even the world and have a Michelin guide pulled from them.
They pulled the Michelin Guide from Los Angeles and Las Vegas because of the Great Recession, they had to downsize and they did so by eliminating half their guides (they only had New York, San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas back then).
As for why they didn't pull Chicago, probably because Chicago didn't have a Michelin Guide to pull away at that time. Chicago got its Michelin Guide in 2011, that was Chicago's debut, that was like 2 years after they pulled Los Angeles and Las Vegas due to the recession.
Also, they've stated numerous times that they're working on bringing the guide back to Los Angeles (as well as Las Vegas for that matter and a few other places in America). Michelin Guide's don't really answer the question of best food city because generally they are defined as higher end eating, places that 95% of America doesn't have the means to eat out in everyday of the week. Los Angeles is viewed as a better city for food than Washington D.C. largely because it is. No one on this forum, for example, is eating out at a Michelin starred restaurant every meal of every day of their lives. In contrast, most people on this forum that eat out generally do tend to favor establishments of all price ranges and localized food trucks and street vendors as well -- those are accessible to nearly everyone that constitutes the general public. Los Angeles has far more diverse options across the board and is generally a more inventive food market than Washington is. You can get basically anything you want in Los Angeles and the quality level is pretty high, that's not really the case with the DMV where you have to find your spots and look harder to do so. That is not to suggest that the DMV's food scene is devoid or lacking, because the DMV has a solid food scene, but simply to suggest that high quality food is less profound there than in Los Angeles, where it is easy to find whether you were looking for it or not.
Food is a subjective quality, there is generally no right or wrong answer because taste varies. However the deeper the food scene with more variety, that tends to separate places from the rest of the pack. Either that or when a city specializes in one type of food but really does it strongly, that also helps their case (i.e. New Orleans). When you add the innovative/inventive aspect to it, that just begins to separate the higher rung from the lower ones.
Michelin Guide's have their value, generally their value is measured by reception in elite foodie circles as a benchmark for a culinarily established and evolving city -- people from the best cooking schools on Earth would look to cities like those to start their careers, it is viewed as advantageous in business circles, and demonstrates that a city, generally speaking, has some semblance of high class. They are not a substitute, however, for general quality of a place's food scene nor the popularity, accessibility, or affordability of said foods.
Last edited by Trafalgar Law; 10-18-2017 at 03:26 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
